Old Boggy Posted July 25, 2020 Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 My pal Steve (Stour-Boy) has a penchant for Darne type shotguns (sliding breech jobbies) and has a 16g Darne, but also another Darne lookalike `ZF` I believe. As owners of these guns probably know, the design is such that casting `on` or `off` of the stock is impossible due to a long stock `screw` going from the breech back into the stock. Any cast to the stock has to be done at the manufacturing stage. As a consequence with Steve being left-handed, he decided to make himself another stock cut to have `cast on`. He is pretty handy and has made an excellent job and the gun appears to fit him well. In a mad moment, I said that I would like to have a go at checkering the stock for him. This is something that I have limited knowledge of but have always wanted to have a go at, having practised on spare bits of wood in the past. I watched a video by Larry something or other of Midway USA and together Steve and I devised a jig to hold the stock such that it could be moved about to aid the job in hand. I soon found out that checkering a flat piece of wood was far easier than trying to obtain straight lines on curved surfaces. As a consequence, the jig needed further adjustment to enable the stock to be moved into different planes, both horizontal and vertical. I finally made the jig that held the stock such that it could be moved in all directions to enable slightly easier use of the checkering tool. Note that I only had one particular checkering tool, whereas I now understand that one should have left and right tools etc for differing directions of cut. The setting out was quite tricky as it had, after all, to look in keeping with the lines of the stock. This particular gun, unlike the Darne, had a one piece stock and forend, but the checkering was divided into two separate sections, one bit on the forend and the other on the stock. The forend section went relatively well and was completed in a reasonable time. However, when I got to the stock section, setting out needed careful consideration to make it look half decent. This took me far longer than I anticipated as much concentration was needed and I found that I could only do about twenty minutes at a time, after which my eyes started playing up. A sign of old age and inexperience of the task no doubt. Fortunately the checkering had to be more functional than aesthetically pleasing which was just as well as my very amateurish attempt clearly shows. I therefore admire greatly those that carry this work out on a regular basis, particularly the likes of Demonwolf444 on here who does some amazing work. The stock seemed to take forever and whilst I was keen to do as best a job as I could for my pal, I was disappointed that it was far from perfect and must confess that in future I will perhaps leave this type of work to the experts. I can now fully understand why the checkering on modern guns are cut by laser. However, Steve was pleased with it, it was functional and providing one didn`t look too closely, was reasonably acceptable...............just ! OB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker570 Posted July 25, 2020 Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 Looks pretty tidy to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diver One Posted July 25, 2020 Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 Looks good enough to me! mine would be the intermediate stage between stock and firewood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Boggy Posted July 25, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 16 minutes ago, Walker570 said: Looks pretty tidy to me. Unfortunately, a closer look highlights some of my bad workmanship, but as said, it is functional and that was the object of the exercise. My pal Steve is pleased with it and as I did it as a favour he cannot complain too much OB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farmboy91 Posted July 25, 2020 Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 Very nice indeed OB Nothing wrong with a few odd marks, gives it that character you only get on something something hand crafted 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry2016 Posted July 25, 2020 Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 3 hours ago, Old Boggy said: My pal Steve (Stour-Boy) has a penchant for Darne type shotguns (sliding breech jobbies) and has a 16g Darne, but also another Darne lookalike `ZF` I believe. As owners of these guns probably know, the design is such that casting `on` or `off` of the stock is impossible due to a long stock `screw` going from the breech back into the stock. Any cast to the stock has to be done at the manufacturing stage. As a consequence with Steve being left-handed, he decided to make himself another stock cut to have `cast on`. He is pretty handy and has made an excellent job and the gun appears to fit him well. In a mad moment, I said that I would like to have a go at checkering the stock for him. This is something that I have limited knowledge of but have always wanted to have a go at, having practised on spare bits of wood in the past. I watched a video by Larry something or other of Midway USA and together Steve and I devised a jig to hold the stock such that it could be moved about to aid the job in hand. I soon found out that checkering a flat piece of wood was far easier than trying to obtain straight lines on curved surfaces. As a consequence, the jig needed further adjustment to enable the stock to be moved into different planes, both horizontal and vertical. I finally made the jig that held the stock such that it could be moved in all directions to enable slightly easier use of the checkering tool. Note that I only had one particular checkering tool, whereas I now understand that one should have left and right tools etc for differing directions of cut. The setting out was quite tricky as it had, after all, to look in keeping with the lines of the stock. This particular gun, unlike the Darne, had a one piece stock and forend, but the checkering was divided into two separate sections, one bit on the forend and the other on the stock. The forend section went relatively well and was completed in a reasonable time. However, when I got to the stock section, setting out needed careful consideration to make it look half decent. This took me far longer than I anticipated as much concentration was needed and I found that I could only do about twenty minutes at a time, after which my eyes started playing up. A sign of old age and inexperience of the task no doubt. Fortunately the checkering had to be more functional than aesthetically pleasing which was just as well as my very amateurish attempt clearly shows. I therefore admire greatly those that carry this work out on a regular basis, particularly the likes of Demonwolf444 on here who does some amazing work. The stock seemed to take forever and whilst I was keen to do as best a job as I could for my pal, I was disappointed that it was far from perfect and must confess that in future I will perhaps leave this type of work to the experts. I can now fully understand why the checkering on modern guns are cut by laser. However, Steve was pleased with it, it was functional and providing one didn`t look too closely, was reasonably acceptable...............just ! OB A valiant effort. i am pretty sure if i had a go it would look a hell of a lot worse! well done 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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